Can Grey's Anatomy survive after season 15 if Ellen Pompeo quits as Meredith Grey?

Grey's Anatomy aired its 15th season premiere in the US last night (September 27), and as fans have come to expect, the two-hour episode began with a voiceover from Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the doctor we first met when she came to Seattle Grace as a new intern back in 2005.

Back then, she'd just had a one night stand with a doctor she nicknamed McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey's Derek Shepherd), and over the following years we watched Meredith and Derek get together, split up, marry by Post-It and survive disasters like drowning, shootings and plane crashes, before she had to cope with Derek's death and build a life without him.

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McDreamy may be long gone, but what would life at the now renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital be like without Meredith herself? It may happen – while Ellen Pompeo signed a deal to stay on for this season and season 16 (a deal worth $20 million a year according to The Hollywood Reporter), she recently hinted that the next season may be her last.

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"I'm clearly not prepared right now to make any kind of formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories we can tell," she said earlier this month. "It's about time that I mix it up. I'm definitely looking for a change."

Pompeo is only one of four original cast members to still be on the show, along with Justin Chambers (Alex), Chandra Wilson (Bailey) and James Pickens Jr (Richard Webber). Together they have appeared in more than 320 episodes – when it reaches season 16 next year, Grey's Anatomy will beat ER and become the longest running medical drama in US TV history – and they've seen 17 series regulars leave during that time.

Unlike ER however, which was never quite the same after George Clooney, Anthony Edwards and Julianna Margulies left, Grey's Anatomy has successfully survived the departure of Patrick Dempsey (the most recognisable actor when the show started), Isaiah Washington, TR Knight (poor, poor George), Katherine Heigl and even the incomparable Sandra Oh.

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In fact, the 15th season kicked off with two more regulars missing – Jessica Capshaw's Arizona and Sarah Drew's April, who both got happy-ever-after plotlines at the end of season 14 – and their absence was barely noticeable thanks to the brisk plotting and convoluted relationship traumas we've come to expect, along with the introduction of new, hot "ortho god" Dr Atticus Lincoln (Nashville's Chris Carmack, who didn't even last a whole episode without getting his top off).

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Indeed, last night's episode may have begun with Meredith (hilariously having sex dreams about coworker DeLuca – perhaps confirming the rumours that this season is more about love and humour than the more depressing stuff of previous years), but it was actually the other doctors who got the most interesting plot strands to develop.

Yes, Meredith may be searching for love this season after meeting a patient who match-makes for a living (please, Meredith, break with tradition and date someone who doesn't work at the hospital), but there's far more potential in Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Maggie's (Kelly McCreary) often comic romance, which almost fell apart this week when she mistakenly thought he had proposed. (We're still not 100% sure about their relationship since they are related by his mum/her dad's marriage, but let's see what happens).

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And even more intriguing is the Owen/Amelia/Teddy triangle that has sucker-for-punishment Owen (Kevin McKidd) once again setting himself up to be trampled all over by Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), while being completely unaware that his former love Teddy (Kim Raver) is pregnant with his baby. (Erm, you'd think doctors would be a bit better at contraception, wouldn't you?)

The return of Raver is an extra treat, adding to the already impressive list of female characters who make Grey's such an appealing place to visit each week. Her military-trained Teddy, alongside Maggie, Bailey, Amelia, Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Dahlia (Sophia Ali) are all strong, fierce, fascinating women and each one is just as interesting as Meredith ever was.

And if that wasn't enough to keep fans tuning in, there's even the (admittedly slim) possibility of the return of Sara Ramirez's wonderful character Callie, after Ramirez tweeted last week that she would be open to coming back to the show.

Based on the season premiere, creator Shona Rhimes' winning formula of such strong characters, the great ensemble performances and the clever mix of romance, sex, humour and tragedy looks set to continue, with or without Pompeo in future years.

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After all, if a show can survive ghost sex (Izzie and dead Denny), an ill-advised musical episode and the awful George and Izzie pairing (ok, we admit it, we never liked Izzie), it can certainly handle the departure of the actress who plays the show's title character, too.

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